Friday, April 10, 2009

Mexico Church Records on FamilySearch Record Search

One of my CVGS colleagues emailed me today to tell me that the LDS FamilySearch Record Search databases now include Catholic church records for two states of Mexico - Aguascaliente (1616-1961) and Chihuahua (1622-1958).

My friend wrote:

"Baptismals, marriages, confirmations, deaths are listed back to the 18th century for many churches. Baptismals give the parents and maternal and paternal grandparents- sometimes their ages are given or if they are deceased. Females are always listed with their maiden names. Some of the later records are indexed."

The records on the site are images of the actual church parish registers. In general, there are no indexes. There are registers for each parish in each state, and then by church (if there is more than one).

When these parish registers are completed for all states of Mexico, the search for ancestral and family records in these states will be much easier. In the past, the researcher had to order the microfilms and roll through the images down at the Family History Center.

I just checked the FamilySearch Indexing Projects page and I don't see any other Catholic church records in the queue. Bummer.

This is one example of how the FamilySearch Indexing project will help researchers all over the world. Eventually. When all of the microfilms and microfiches are digitally imaged and indexed. 5 to 10 years from now?

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